24 COMMENT


EXISTENTIAL CRISIS At the same time local authorities are dealing with a growth in homelessness which is threatening the fi nancial stability of many councils and pushing them to the brin of banruptcy ast year, nglish councils spent more than bn on temporary accommodation  nearly a third more than they did in the previous year and a huge waste of money or the most part, this money is being paid to private landlords who own short- stay hostels, bedsits and  hotels The accommodation is unsuitable, cramped and often unsafe, particularly for families with children ow much better it would be if the money was being spent on building secure and affordable homes, while paying decent wages to construction staff


nstead ondon boroughs are spending m a day on emergency housing  eual to three-uarters of their total housing ependiture, while astings in ast usse, one of the worst hit by the problem, is spending over  of its core spending on emergency housing This is not an isolated problem and a growing list of councils are reporting that the cost of providing temporary accommodation is putting their fi nancial stability at ris eanwhile it was recently revealed that councils in ngland, with the most severe shortages of social housing, now have waiting lists eceeding  years for a family sied  bed social home This etraordinary fi nding came from analysis done jointly by the ational ousing ederation, Crisis and helter who are warning of the critical need to boost investment in social housing in order to end homelessness and tacle the countrys rapidly worsening housing crisis The fi gures reveal a dire situation for struggling families across the country, as the number of families on waiting lists in ngland has increased by  since  n  local authorities across ngland the wait for a family sied home is now longer than an entire childhood  years, with the worst three councils, all in ondon, having waiting lists eceeding the hundred years fi gure mentioned above


dditionally helter is warning that without urgent investment, homelessness and its staggering costs to councils will continue to syrocet sing historical trends and overnment data, helter estimates that , children will be homeless by  and the number of households in temporary accommodation could surge by  ithout critical investment in providing new social


if social landlords are to rebuild their fi nancial capacity and to withstand further fi nancial shocs in a more uncertain world They are also vital if the social housing sector is to deliver an upsurge in housebuilding funded by a boost to development budgets with more generous grant rates


housing, the charity says that the cost of temporary accommodation is on trac to spiral by  to bn by 


NO QUICK FIXES To prevent such outcomes, the overnment has been intent on changing the countrys planning framewor and trying to mae it easier and uicer for new housing developments to obtain planning permission t has begun recruiting and training hundreds of new planning offi cers, as well as investigating the creation of a series of new towns and increasing the amount of funding available to pay for new affordable housing


ut given the time taen to design, obtain consent for and to build new houses, it will be several years before we see any signifi cant and positive results arising from these actions n the meantime housing waiting lists will continue to lengthen and temporary housing costs continue to rise  hence the rather dramatic forecasts given by helter n fact the picture could even be worse later this decade because fi rstly the downward trajectory needs to be halted and then it needs to be reversed This is why policy maers in the sector are calling for the biggest boost to social housing in a generation Turning this around will require a pacage of measures to rebuild capacity, unlocing housing associations ability to borrow and build new social homes or this reason the ational ousing ederation has been lobbying inisters for a -year rent settlement, with annual increases lined closely to infl ation and a means for the rents of similar properties in the same area to converge over time, removing epensive and diffi cult to eplain anomalies


These measures are seen as essential


ecause of the challenging environment which social landlords have been woring in over the past decade, many housing associations have actually been reducing their development programmes in recent years and their ependiture on ection  homes in particular This mechanism was until very recently one of the most productive and popular ways for associations to deliver new housing, but not anymore f ever proof was needed that housebuilding is nothing lie turning a tap on or off and is more lie the massive taners moving cargo across the oceans, this is surely it


peaing ahead of the pending eview which will answer many of the uestions about the overnments intent, ate enderson, the s Chief ecutive, said The fact that families in so many parts of the country face waiting lists for an affordable home longer than their childrens entire childhood is a national scandal ecurity, stability and the space to learn and play is vital for a childs development, yet we are allowing hundreds of thousands of children to grow up in damaging temporary homes, in cramped and poor-uality conditions and with little privacy This is no way for a child to grow up and these children deserve better


“The social housing sector has faced years of withdrawal of vital funding This pending eview is the opportunity for the overnment to rebuild the capacity of the social housing sector and commit the investment and the change that is needed, creating a better future for our children and ending homelessness for good This means delivering co- ordinated homelessness and long-term housing strategies which include a pacage of measures to support the social housing sector to recover and crucially a big boost in funding to build new social homes


The downturn in housebuilding seen in  can be reversed and many of the levers for achieving this are slowly being put in place, but the housing sector needs an awful lot of help and support if it is to ensure that helters warnings about what could happen with homelessness do not turn into an awful prophecy


LAST YEAR, ENGLISH COUNCILS SPENT MORE THAN £2.1BN ON TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATION WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK


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